For those of you afraid that Marcus Thornton might be on his way out, you might have even more reason to worry. The Hornets have acquired a Thornton clone of sorts in third year guard Jerryd Bayless. Like Thornton, Bayless is an undersized shooting guard who can also play a little point guard and can light it up in bunches. Unlike Thornton, Bayless has a relationship with Monty Williams.
Bayless averaged 8.5 PPG in slightly less than 18 minutes per game last season, with vastly lower FG and 3PT percentages than Thornton put up last year. There is a slight possibility that Bayless can come in and be the backup point guard, however it is hard to imagine a second unit consisting of Peja, MT5, and Bayless because none of those guys will be accused of being a distributor.
Bayless’s contract is decent- 2.3 million this year with team options for the next two years. Many will argue that although he never had a season like Thornton had last year, the truth is that he was never really given an opportunity with the Blazers. When he was given minutes, he scored at a remarkably high rate, but he also fouled at a remarkably high rate. And for a guy with his quickness and skill set, he was horrible when it came to making plays for his teammates and stealing the ball. If you do want to consider him a point guard, know this: he finished 63rd out of 71 players in pure point rating.
For Bayless, the Hornets gave up a protected first round pick that will likely be next year’s pick- as long as the Hornets don’t finish with a top 7 pick. Bayless was the 11th pick in the 2008 draft, and even though he is going into his 3rd season, he is only 22 (14 months younger than MT5) and he still has plenty of upside. You get the feeling that either he or Thornton will be the long term spark plug off the bench for this squad, but it is hard to imagine both co-existing short term or long term.
But again, we are getting too far ahead of ourselves- first let’s see how this plays out. Maybe he and Marcus can co-exist even though it does not look like a good fit on paper. Or maybe the Hornets have a trade all lined up where they can move Marcus for a big man or as a part of a larger deal. For now, we’ll just have to wait.
29 responses to “Hornets Acquire Bayless for Conditional 1st round pick”
Jerryd Bayless is now a Hornet!
Great job Dell Demps … The Hornets are making moves now!
F-West, F-Ariza, C-Okafor, G-Belinelli, G-Paul
F-Stojakovic, G-Thornton, C-Smith, G-Green, G-Bayless
L_Reazy
I see Bayless and Paul togther starting though. I`ll even go as far as saying that NOH might be grooming a replacement perhaps
I’ve heard this a few times and don’t get it at all… Bayless is not being brought in as a potential Paul replacement if he bolts. That’s silly. Bayless has very limited PG skills.. as Michael states above.
Bayless is a shooting guard who can’t shoot. Puts his head down and drives to the hoop hoping for a foul. The free throw is his offense. Bad trade for a first rounder.
“Puts his head down and drives to the hoop hoping for a foul.”
Which he usually gets… .5 free throw attempts per field goal attempt/6.7 attempts per 36 minutes. That’s damn good for a small guard.
“The free throw is his offense.”
A pretty good place for offense when you shoot 83%.
Did she shoot 83% from the line last season? His career and pre-season numbers are 70.6 and 72.7% respectively…
CarnbY… don’t know where you are getting your numbers from. Bayless is a career 82% shooter.
http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/b/bayleje01.html
Sorry Caleb, my bad. I was looking at:
http://www.nba.com/playerfile/jerryd_bayless/index.html
and I assumed that the career line was his career numbers, not his career pre-season numbers.
Hmmm… Too much of Demps and Williams relying of players they know about or have relationships with. This limits the pool of talent to select from. So far I do not like the moves. Also, 1st round pick is too high.
What exactly is wrong with bringing in players they have relationships with?
Limits the talent pool to select from? How? They have the same talent pool as everyone else in the NBA. They’ve just brought in a few guys they know… I actually count this as a positive.
And while I understand some people don’t like losing a first round pick… I just think of it as the Hornets drafting Bayless, which is a pick that sounds solid to me.
Some interesting reads:
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=ys-draftreportcards062808
(In this article, Yahoo states that both they and Portland had Bayless as 4th ranked guy coming out of the draft)
http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/jerryd-bayless-1067/
(Draft Express evaluation of Bayless- listed best case scenario as Monte Ellis with better PG skills)
Point is that this guy does have plenty of scoring talent and does have a high ceiling. Hopefully Monty saw something that makes him think that he is ready to reach it sooner than later.
I dont think he will be a starting PG anytime soon but for a back up He seems to be a decent fit. First rounder? Thats a tough sell. Still The guy is young enough (would only be a senior if he stayed.) The knock on him that his offensive is foul shooting isnt bad in the context that the Hornets didnt get to the line much last year and a collapsing D opens things up for shooters if Bayless can work on the drive and dish.
It certainly seems to help this year.
I just love the trade. And no, I do not think Marcus will be tarded. Maybe I am too optimistic about it and undervalue the fact that Demps and Monty are not that attached to Marcus, but I think his upside is just too immense for them giving him up. I assume they see a guard rotation of CP3, Belinelli, Bayless and Marcus. This is a great and very very young guard rotation that could grow and be real dangerous. The coaching staff likes combo backup guards (they said so in the beginning) and with Bayless and Thornton (I really hope this works) as the backups we have two combo-guards that can score and create. Bayless is decent at fascilitating, but not the best as some have pointed out. But Marcus could still benefit from Bayless, since he is a better distributer than Green.
Thumbs up – so far I really like all the trades done and I really like this youth infusion thats going on.
At first I was wishing they put more of a protection on their pick but with the potential lockout I see a ton of players returning to college until things get settled. Guys that were set to bolt will stay until things get settled. Obviously, players will still leave early but I think there’s some good talent that stays in college, more so than usual.
That being said, I don’t see a great draft class coming. There will be some elite guys at the top and then become a crap shoot. If the Hornets are at the top (heaven forbid) they own their pick. If the team has a good season, or finds themselves in the crap shoot they traded uncertainty for Bayless and I can work with that.
It’s good to see that aggressive approach. Demps and company are making a statement that they will be aggressive in getting the pieces they need. Love it.
Cosign–I think Hollis21 is exactly right.
alas, the willie green/curtis jerrells era has come to an end…
bayless has a lot of potential – playing for macmillan, the worst slowdown coach in the league, couldn’t be easy for a kid like bayless
What is a slowdown coach? One who promotes a half-court offense over a fast break?
Pretty much. See Scott, Byron – despite his claims to the contrary.
And yeah Mcmillan is pretty much the king of slow, half-court basketball… although this is not an inherently bad thing- Portland’s slow-down offenses have been super efficient the past two years. Not a good fit for Bayless though….
Believe me I’m not one to put words is someone’s mouth, but are you guys implying that you don’t respect the half-court offense? Didn’t Shaquille O’Neal and the like, make fans respect that type of game?
Anyone making claims about how Bayless plays needs to take these points into account: 1) He has only played two years in the league. If he were entering his fourth or fifth year in the league we could probably make pretty sound generalizations about his play, but at this point he still has a lot of room to change. 2) His stats improved dramatically from his first year to last year, almost across the board. For example, his PER went from 8.2 to 14.3, his True Shooting% went from .487 to .534, and his Win Shares went from .3 to 2.7 (http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/b/bayleje01.html).
It seems all we get are under sized shooting guards who are labeled “point guards”. I anxious to see what this kid can do but we need to go bigger than this to keeep CP and challenge L.A.
Here’s the Portland Oregonian’s analysis of Bayless:
“Bayless’ determined drives and score-first mentality raised questions whether he was a point guard or a shooting guard. Those questions were answered by Cho, who used the first month of practices and exhibition games to come to Saturday’s conclusion:
“Jerryd is not a true point guard,” Cho said. “And at two guard on this team, he’s stuck, probably as the fourth guy.”
In seven preseason games, Bayless averaged 8.0 points and 3.0 assists while shooting 37 percent from the field and 35.3 percent from three-point range (6 for 17).”
It was a blessing for Bayless to get drafted in the NBA at such young age, but a curse in that he rode the pine every season. If Bayless stayed in school, he not only would have been a better player, he’d be a top PG in the league b/c that’s what his school is known for. Obviously, he’s no where near that right now, but under the wise tutelage of Coach Monty & CP3, this could be his breakout season.
We should keep in mind that he would be entering his senior year if he stayed in school. Hopefully this will be another version of what happened with Jermaine O’Neal, where he rode the pine for Portland but then became an all-star when he got a chance with Indiana (I don’t really expect Bayless to develop into an all-star, but one can dream)…
He may not turn into a star, but he could be a Jason Terry-type scoring combo and his production was much better than O’Neal’s was early in their careers.
Anyone know what the condition is?
With Portland looking to clear roster spots, the condition may be pretty absurdly Hornets-friendly. Consider our Rasual Butler trade to Clippers. It was a trade on paper, but was really a salary dump. In this case, the Trailblazers got rid of a seldom used player who was one obstacle to acquiring someone they want all while saving money since they were close-to-over the tax line prior to the move given their pending signings.
I don’t know if the conditions are Hornets-friendly or not (like getting 24 mpg), but it’s possible considering the needs of the Blazers.
It’s a protected pick I think they get the pick if its 1-7. Now we did pretty bad last year and still got 11 so my question to the jb haters do you think with the new youth hornets will be worse than last season
Trading for B-rex was a stroke of genius IMO. So many Portland fans I talk to are sorry to see him go , and relate that he has a tireless work ethic(first to practice last to leave) and he doesn’t quit EVER. He really kept Portland in the game against PHX last year in the playoffs. He will learn from Chris , just like Darren did. I am so excited about this trade and the season!!!!
Not sure if I like the move, but at least they are making moves for young athletic players. Bayless played very little point in Portland, which could contribute to his poor ratings as a point guard since he played the two and was asked to score more. I just hope the draft pick does not end up being too big of a loss. Seems like a guy with a lot of potential, hope it all works out!